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Monthly Archives: July 2011

Unless you live under a rock, you have probably read about the lawsuit filed by the organization American Atheists against enshrining a cross at the 9/11 memorial and museum in New York City, the news are all over the blogosphere.

Regardless of your religious affiliation, or the lack thereof, there are only so many stances you can take about this issue: either you agree with the lawsuit filed by American Atheists, or not; or you may also be torn. Your reaction, however, might fit in a quite wide range of adjectives.

Theists claim atheists are angry, then lash out with disproportionate rage and hatred when their beliefs are challenged. #atheism#atheist

I know what you’re thinking: yet another atheist crying faul over a few unkind words from some upset Christians… you know, we are overreacting, we’re a bunch of drama queens, right?

Whatever.

To me it is just another cross as there are so many other crosses in almost every village, and every city in nearly every country all over the world. After all it’s just a cross, two beams crossed, an ugly “T”, a “Plus” sign, a cross… doesn’t mean anything to me — except, maybe, that it is a reminder of the fact that there are still people willing to believe in fairytales, and more importantly, the mental note that some of these people have proven to be capable of, and willing to do pretty much anything, including terrible deeds against other human beings, in order to defend their sacred fairytales beliefs. Repeatedly. Wait, why is that we’re talking about not enshrining a cross at the very same place where before there was a building? Oh!

I know, right? The irony!

If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.

— Lenny Bruce

The thing is you are not supposed to be hated and wanted dead for having the guts to stand for what you think is right, and especially, you are not supposed to be wanted dead by the people who, allegedly, have the highest ground on morality, love, mercy, compassion and such. Allegedly. They are so NOT Jesus-like.

I don’t remember having seen anything like this coming from atheists/agnostics/skeptics or even anti-religion folks.

Okay, if you haven’t seen the infamous famous comments, feast on the sad display. These little snippets of Christian hatred love deserve to be preserved per omnia saecula saeculorum.

“Few groups are filled with more hate than atheists,” commented Michael Perri.

See, this is not news, not to me and most likely not to you.

Mr. Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right fanatic who murdered in cold blood 89 people in Norway, did not threaten anyone, (unless you consider his manifesto as an open threat), he was just another fundamentalist Christian… who hates Muslims… until he went on a killing spree. Now he’s just a madman.

Have you not received any death threats for being a filthy infidel? I get them on a regular basis, I get emails telling me that I am going to hell, from many different people. Pretty much daily. One of the most upsetting emails I’ve gotten reads “I hope you get skinned and then raped on a pile of salt, if I wasn’t a Christian I would do it myself”. See, they can have quite the imagination to write a whole new series of Saw movies. I cried that day – not because I thought my life could be really in danger, but because my inability to believe in god and my right to be open about it was, to someone, a good enough reason to want me to go through this disturbing, so well described excruciating pain, torture, and death.

Ever heard about Dennis Markuze? He goes by the alias Dave Mabus, and unless you’re a Christian like himself, you must have gotten his hateful tweets at least once… and if you’re lucky, along with his emails, you might have gotten some personalized tweets.

Doesn’t it make one feel “spishul”?

See, Markuze is quite obsessed with killing atheists, PZ Myers posted his picture back then when they almost met. But who takes Mabus seriously? He’s just a crazy loser, right? Usually he tosses you a link with his crazy psycho-babble, that’s it… he hasn’t snapped… yet.

Another Markuze’s target is Dr. Michael Shermer. There is a well known statement by Dr. Shermer on this subject. Have you not read it? [expand title=”Read it.” swaptitle=”Collapse”]

January 22, 2011

To: Dennis Markuze, aka Mabus

From: Michael Shermer

I spoke to your father yesterday, after a conversation with your mother the day before. Your father told me that he thought you had stopped doing things like this years ago, but when I read him your latest postings, ramblings, and death threats he was surprised to hear that this technique of drawing attention to yourself by harassment continues. Apparently this is something that you have been doing for many years.

Listen carefully. I have contacted the Montreal police, along with the local police in my city, and alerted them to the danger that you pose as a deranged and possibly mentally ill man. Although your parents indicated that they don’t think that you are mentally ill, they are obviously not privy to the death threats you have been sending all of us. On Monday I am filing a restraining order against you. If you show up anywhere near me I will have you arrested on the spot and put into jail. If you attempt to approach me I will be armed and will not hesitate to use any force necessary to stop you.

In the past 24 hours I have received over 200 tweets and emails from you. This must stop now. I hereby demand an end to all communication from you of any form. If you continue contact with me this will all go on your police record.

Michael Shermer[/expand]

Sound a bit more serious now?

The truth is we can’t know how serious, how real, and how many of them desire this badly enough to carry out their threats.

Here’s the question: How safe do you feel when you say you are an atheist?

We need freedom from religion more than we need freedom of religion. #atheism#atheist

Hubble’s newest camera has taken an image of galaxy NGC 4214. This galaxy glows brightly with young stars and gas clouds, and is an ideal laboratory to research star formation and evolution.

Size isn’t everything… in astronomy, at least. Dwarf galaxy NGC 4214 may be small, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in content. It is packed with everything an astronomer could ask for, from hot, young star-forming regions to old clusters with red supergiants.

The intricate patterns of glowing ionised hydrogen gas, cavities blown clear of gas by stellar wind, and bright stellar clusters of NGC 4214 can be seen in this optical and near-infrared image, taken using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

A huge heart-shaped cavity — possibly the galaxy’s most eye-catching feature — can be seen at the centre of the image. Inside this hole lies a large cluster of massive, young stars ranging in temperature from 10 000 to 50 000 degrees Celsius. Their strong stellar winds are responsible for the creation of this hollow area. The resulting lack of gas prevents any further star formation from occurring in this region.

Located around 10 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs), the galaxy’s relative close proximity to us, combined with the wide variety of evolutionary stages among the stars, makes it an ideal laboratory to research what triggers star formation and evolution. By chance, there is relatively little interstellar dust between us and NGC 4214, making our measurements of it more accurate.

NGC 4214 contains a large amount of gas, some of which can be seen glowing red in the image, providing abundant material for star formation. The area with the most hydrogen gas, and consequently, the youngest clusters of stars (around two million years old), lies in the upper part of this Hubble image. Like most of the features in the image, this area is visible due to ionisation of the surrounding gas by the ultraviolet light of a young cluster of stars within.

Observations of this dwarf galaxy have also revealed clusters of much older red supergiant stars that we see at a late stage in their evolution. Additional older stars can be seen dotted all across the galaxy. While these are dominant in infrared emission they can only be seen shining faintly in this visible-light image. The variety of stars at different stages in their evolution, indicate that the recent and ongoing starburst periods are by no means the first, and the galaxy’s numerous ionised hydrogen regions suggest they will not be the last.

This image is of Atlantis and its Orbital Boom Sensor System robot arm extension backdropped against Earth’s horizon and a greenish phenomenon associated with Aurora Australis. One of the station’s solar array panels appears at upper left. Because of the exposure time needed for this type of photography, some of the stars in the background are blurred.